10 Traits of Bar Owners Determined to Fail

Opening a bar or managing a bar is not as easy as many would have you believe. Although the rewards for those who get it right can be great, a large majority fail for the same few reasons again and again.

Having worked with more than 200 bars and restaurants, I’ve listed the 10 things I have come across most often that have ended up costing a lot of money, alienating customers and even contributed to the closure of the business. In no particular order:

1. No research done on location or market

Too many times I have met with struggling bar owners who spent a fortune on a concept that worked well somewhere else but for some reason it isn’t doing the business for them. Could it be because the high end bar/restaurant you built is in a brand new neighborhood where the inhabitants are young couples tied into mortgages and childcare costs?

How One Bar Owner Gets A Near Perfect Inventory Result

Speaking to a nightclub owner recently who turns over $100,000+ per week in his busy city center premises I learned that his weekly variance/stock loss is less than $200 at cost.

I know of other businesses taking in $6000 per week that have the same losses. So how does the nightclub owner do it? It’s actually quite simple: He systemizes his business and has implemented basic procedures to control stock from receipt to eventual sale:

1. Staff are assigned to a specific bar each shift and cannot work in other bars without management direction. This makes the staff members accountable for any stock losses/cash shortages.

2. Each bar (7 in total) is inventoried separately at the end of each night. This takes ten minutes per bar and identifies losses on the spot.

Robert Plotkin on the Nightclub & Bar Show turning 25!

The first time I attended the Nightclub & Bar Show in Las Vegas was in 1987. I had just started writing for the magazine, which at that point was only two years old and still very much evolving and finding its voice, so to speak.

If memory serves, the convention that year was held at the Tropicana in an adjacent building at the back of the property. Despite being a fraction of the size of what it is today, I needed a minute or two to take in what I found. The smallish hall was rocking. Its walls reverberated from the hard driving music. Laser lights circled the room, strobes flashed and confetti cannons occasionally filled the air with streamers.

It took less than an hour for me to make several circuits around the show floor, but they proved unforgettable laps. I rejoiced in sampling new spirits being offered by the few suppliers who had booths.

You can have perfect draft beer: Every glass. Every day.

Draft beer can be your shining star. It should make about 80% profit margins and keep your customers returning again and again. Good draft beer is your silent salesman, prodding customers to have a second one because the first was so good. Most customers may not know exactly why they love your place but good draft beer is a key to creating return business.

Good beer/bad beer. Draft beer should be at its best, fresh to drink and beautiful to the eye. It comes in the most economically and environmentally friendly package possible. Good beer only takes up about 13.5 oz of space in a 16oz glass. It has a rich color and a beautiful head about 3/4” high.

David Commer on Why Quality Still Matters

In these uncertain economic times, there is a temptation and a tendency to reduce costs at all cost! The focus turns from running a good business and growing sales, to cutting costs. This is a mistake that leads to short sighted initiatives that can permanently damage your brand’s reputation. You don’t have to compromise quality in an effort to control or reduce costs. Controlling costs should be a normal part of operating your business and not be a knee jerk reaction to the economy or a specific event. Controlling costs by focusing on the operational details is good business all of the time.